The 2018 UK Bus Driver of the Year competition takes place in Blackpool and now Lothian has chosen its five finalists to go forward to the contest.
They had to compete with eleven other drivers in challenging tests after making it through to the final rounds of Lothian’s Driver of The Year competition from an original 280 applicants. In the grand final drivers were challenged with demonstrating their knowledge and skills by completing a theory exam, obstacle course, a bus safety check in addition to being put under pressure in a live on-the-road driving test.
Drivers Scott Crosbie, Stephen McLeod, Adam Stitt, David Miller and William Blakey were ranked as the top five out of 16 finalists and will now go forward to compete against over 100 other drivers from across the UK. They are going to have more practice sessions at the firm’s training academy in Longstone ahead of the event. They also have to have a clean licence, no blameworthy accidents and a good service record to enter the competition.
Richard Hall, Managing Director from Lothian said: “Our drivers do an incredible job day in, day out delivering a service for the 2.3 million customers who travel with us each week. To be selected to represent our company at the UK Bus Driver of the Year competition is a huge honour and our five finalists should be extremely proud to have got to this stage.
“The competition in Blackpool will be an opportunity to showcase our drivers’ technical expertise and professionalism and to prove that they are the best in the industry. Our fingers are crossed for each of our five finalists and we hope we can welcome the title of UK Bus Driver of the Year back to Edinburgh later this year.”
Scott Crosbie won 3rd Place at the UK Bus Driver of the Year final at Blackpool in 2017.
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